For years, I chased prosperity. I built two million- dollar companies, wrote a best-selling book, was appearing regularly on television, had a house a half a block from the beach, the kids in private school…, the whole nine.
By anyone’s standards, I had made it.
I should have felt prosperous and abundant, but I didn’t.
I had a great business, and the ability to make all the money I could have possibly needed, and yet I was emotionally and financially bankrupt.
And it stemmed from a core belief I carried with me from childhood.
This core belief led me to make consistently bad decisions about how I used my time, my energy, and my attention—, resources I will never be able to get back.
Due to this core belief, I hurt relationships that will never recover. And, the truth is, I didn’t really know how to have relationships because the only thing I really thought about when it came to relationships was how much the relationship would cost me, or how much it would make me.
While I considered myself someone who cared about people, that caring was mostly trapped beneath a dis-ease of epic proportions that nearly ruined my life.
It’s a disease that many people have, and it’s a disease that’s extremely difficult to see or diagnose because it’s so commonplace in our current culture.
In fact, you just might have this disease yourself. And, if you do, it really doesn’t matter how much money you make, it will never be enough. If you have this disease, you’ll never feel prosperous or abundant.
Instead, what you will likely do is constantly compromise your life, your time, your energy, your attention, and your relationships.
The worst part is, you won’t even know you are doing it.
If you have it, this disease is blinding because it makes you think you don’t have what you need, and that you must compromise because if you don’t, you’ll starve, or be homeless, or never be able to support yourself, or not be good enough, or never prove it to them, or … well, you know the stories, I am sure, because you’ve got your own personal version of it, probably secretly motivating you, any possibly even in ways you can’t even see.
As a result of this disease, you have thoroughly convinced yourself you have to work that job you hate, or stay in that marriage or relationship you can’t stand, or go to that event you really don’t want to go to, or be friends with that person you would rather just not, or invest in that company that you know is hurting the planet, or buy that disposable thing because you can’t afford the one that’s more expensive, but won’t end up in the landfill, or not do that thing you really want to do, and you just know would change your life …
… because, well, you don’t have enough money to make a different choice.
Do you see what I’m saying here?
You long for prosperity and abundance, and yet every choice isyou based on a diseased reality, a distorted view.
How much would you have to have before you stopped compromising?
It doesn’t matter. Because if you are compromising now, there’s no amount of money that will ever be enough, not until you see the disease that has been running your life, wake up from it, and start making your choices with your eyes wide open, clear, sober, awake and aware.
So, what is this disease?
It’s called money dysmorphia. And it’s the distorted view that most of us have about money that causes us to make poor decisions about, well, everything. But, mostly it causes us to make poor decisions about how we use our non-renewable assets, our time, our energy and our attention.
And the really sad part of this is that money is infinitely renewable. You can always, always, always make more money. But once you’ve given up your time, your energy and your attention, it’s gone forever.
The good news is that once you see your money dysmorphia, you can begin to awaken to right relationship with time, money and how you get paid, in a way that will bring you all the prosperity you want and need and help you to understand the true purpose of your family wealth.